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Friday, February 28, 2014

Meet the brave and fearless Visola; a woman unlike any you've ever encountered. Her wit and humor take her through the darkest of dangers with a smile always on her face--and her smile only grows larger as the odds become more impossible. With no concern for her own safety, Visola dives headfirst into the throes of battle to protect the people and country she loves, even if it means facing her worst enemy--the one man who can get inside her head and break her down like no other: her own husband...

There is no divorce in the undersea kingdom of Adlivun. Marriage is a bond that lasts until death--even if death comes in several centuries, and in that time your spouse happens to become your sworn enemy. This is the conflict that General Visola Ramaris faces when she learns that the mighty Vachlan is behind the attacks on her kingdom. She has sworn to protect Adlivun with her life, but long ago, she also swore to love and honor her husband...

Visola must choose whether she will destroy Vachlan once and for all, or attempt the hardest thing conceivable: communication. After two hundred years of desertion, she knows she can never forgive him. When he threatens the person dearest to her, she must take action. Confronting Vachlan on enemy territory would be nothing short of suicide. She knows that if she falls into his custody, the deranged mercenary would relish torturing her and making her lose her own sanity.

Princess Aazuria forbids Visola from taking matters into her own hands. She will do anything it takes to protect her friend from the man who wants to crush her. Alas, Visola is a crazy, uncontrollable warrior with the blood of Vikings in her veins. Why would she ever consider doing the safe and predictable thing?

EXCERPT

When Aazuria entered the room, her eyes were immediately drawn to Visola’s wild red hair, which had recently been a lustrous mass of audacious curls. Now, her hair was limp. It hung against her head flat, frizzy and defeated. Aazuria’s eyes darted to the warrior’s sunken cheekbones and gaunt face. She saw the bruises on Visola’s neck before her eyes traveled further to the withered, wasted limbs. Every visible part of her friend’s body was covered in fresh scars. She saw the bandaged hands. Visola had been starved and tortured.

Perhaps in these modern times, even under the surface of the sea, kings, queens, and the aristocracy had close to zero significance. Perhaps the words and decrees which left Aazuria’s mouth would have minimal consequences. No one in the throne room felt this way as they awaited Aazuria’s judgment with bated breath. Sionna was standing aside, with her arms crossed. The newly-crowned queen gripped her husband’s sword tightly in her fist as Trevain and Elandria entered the room behind her.

Aazuria shifted her eyes to the man standing beside her friend. Her face was expressionless.

“Approach me, Vachlan,” she whispered.

The man began walking toward her. Although his stride was dignified, there was hesitation on his face. Visola began speaking, pleading words which Aazuria could not hear over the sound of her heart pounding in her ears.

When Vachlan was close enough to strike, Aazuria gazed at him with death in her eyes.

“Kneel,” she commanded him. Her chest was rising and falling perceptibly.

Vachlan knew that this would be a very unwise thing to do, but he owed it to Aazuria. He owed it to Visola, and to Adlivun—the nation he had once called home. He lowered his head and dropped to one knee before the queen, saluting her across his chest. His eyes were level with the sword she held, and he could see the veins bulging through her translucent pale skin from how tightly she clutched it.

“It would be futile to order you punished,” she said slowly. “No one can even attempt to hurt you as much as you have hurt her.”

“I know,” he answered quietly.

“But it is my duty to try.”

She struck out with her sword, slicing the air until the blade collided with his face, knocking Vachlan off his knees and onto the floor. Aazuria could vaguely hear Visola screaming for her to stop, but she was already standing over Vachlan and forcing the tip of her sword between his teeth. Her previous strike had resulted in a huge bleeding gash along the side of his handsome face, but it had not been enough to kill him. She was poised to finish the job.

Vachlan moved his tongue against the steel, tasting the freshly-sharpened metal edge garnished with the metallic taste of his own blood. It is rare that the wine so perfectly accompanies the main dish, he thought as he swallowed the coppery fluid accumulating in his mouth. Kind of like a German Pinot Noir. He looked into the azure eyes of Adlivun’s queen and realized that this was no longer the innocent, charitable philanthropist he had known hundreds of years ago. She was hard. He wondered what percentage of the tempered rage behind her eyes he was responsible for generating.

“One reason.” Aazuria was demanding. “Give me one convincing reason that I should not thrust my blade directly through your skull.”

Nadia Scrieva

Nadia Scrieva lives in Toronto, Canada with no husband, no kids, and no pets. She does own a very attractive houseplant which she occasionally remembers to water between her all-consuming writing marathons.

Forgetting who you are, your ambitions, your lover is crippling. Remembering, embracing your purpose with a new sense of determination is more than empowering. It's soul seizing. Charlie Myers is embarking on a life-altering path that will cause the damned to humble in silence…

One night, just a few friends how could it go so wrong? That was the question Charlie was asking herself when she awoke in the ER. Outwardly nothing was wrong with Charlie, she was a vision of perfect health, but Charlie knew something else was wrong, wickedly wrong. That fearful notion became even more gripping when her mind began to parade haunting visions of entrancing emerald green eyes, laced in black, before her. When she felt a hole in her heart, when the music she drowned her fears in began to amplify the ache in her soul, and caused her to crave an embrace she thought she never knew.

Charlie knew then that part of her was stolen. She was missing memories. Those memories were sacred. They held the key to her sanity. They told her that the sinister whispers, and the shadows that came to life before her, were not as ominous as she felt they were. They caused her to forget the one talent that allowed her to face the darkness that haunted her every waking hour. They also masked a much deeper bond, the face of the one that had stolen her heart, long before that tragically blinding night.

Charlie wanted to stay in NY, fight her demons where she found them, and ensure that her true home remained a sanctuary. Fate had a different plan in mind. Against her will, Charlie was sent to Salem to live with her sister. Within that small town Charlie found her memories…and so much more.

Her story begins now.

EXCERPT

“What’s going on?” I asked nervously, hitting ‘Pause’ on my phone as I watched him push the seat back so his legs could have more room.

“I told you I’d tell you how to get back,” he said, smiling faintly.

Every part of me was tingling. Yet, I was frozen in place. I had no idea how I was going to focus well enough to drive.

What would I do if I had to fight these shadows in front of him? I was horrified.

“Yeah, but I thought you meant follow you,” I said, trying to take in a breath after I said the words.

“I wanted to ride with you,” he said, pulling his belt on.

As he leaned closer to me to fasten it, I could smell the addictive aroma of his cologne. I knew that scent. My mind was firing off images of him at warp speed. His scent, his eyes, his energy, every ounce of him was magnifying fantasies I could not comprehend in the state I was in.

“Just for the record, you’re only my second passenger. Third, if you count my teacher,” I said, putting the car in drive.

“Duly noted.”

I caught myself staring into his enchanting eyes. His dark lashes framed the most alluring color I’d ever seen. It was like they were intended to be black, but a shade of the most perfect green had shattered the black canvas that they were.

Eyes that had haunted me for days...

He stared back at me with almost the same wonder, then he quirked a slight grin. “That way,” he said, pointing to the left.

Obviously I was alone in my fascination. Surely if we were anything like my minds eye was telling me we were in some forgotten past he would have said something.

Unless. Unless it was a bad past.

The tinge of pain in my heart let that dark thought enter my mind.

I felt my cheeks flush with embarrassment. I tried to smile through it as I turned the wheel. I crept down the gravel driveway, fighting the glare of the headlights coming from his Hummer. Just before I reached the road, he reached up and moved my rearview mirror, taking the torture of the lights away. He then gently grasped my ear buds and pulled them out. His warm fingertips brushed against my skin, and it took everything I had not to faint. I thought I heard him sigh, just after he took in a deep breath. Those long fingertips of his lingered a little longer, more than likely a second or two, but it felt like hours, then they slid down my neck taking the cords from my ear buds with them.

I angled my eyes at him to see if I had the same effect on him that he clearly had on me.

“You have to be able to see and hear if you’re going to get us home,” he explained, relaxing into his seat. He bit his bottom lip as he bathed me in his smoldering gaze. We said a thousand words at that moment. Words I could not hear, but wanted to.

Jamie Magee

I'm an obsessive daydreamer. Lover of loud alternative music. Addicted to Red Bull. I love to laugh until it hurts. Fall is my favorite season. Black is my favorite 'shade.' Strong believer in the saying: there is a reason for everything, therefore I search for 'marked moments' every moment of everyday...and I find them. Life is beautiful!

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Willow Haywood has always been trapped between the worlds of the Light and the Dark. Her waking hours are plagued by her ability to feel the emotions of those around her. No matter how inward she draws, she cannot shut out the feelings of others. Sometimes she will see images - echoes of other people and places - that she can enter to influence the emotions of people she has never met.

By night, Willow experiences her only escape from this terrible insight - entering into the world of dreams. Most of these dreams are shared in blissful silence with a stunning blue-eyed boy. But every new moon she lives through something much darker: a horrific nightmare shared by another mysterious boy who is always shrouded by shadows.

One night, this shadowy figure invades her dreams outside of his appointed time. In this new nightmare, Willow is marked; a mark which follows her into the waking world and sets her on a momentous path through light and darkness, through fragmented myth and half-truths, through past lives and disturbing family secrets, all in the face of the ever-dominant Zodiac. What she finds will endanger the lives of those closest to her and will force her to make a decision that will change her world forever.

EXCERPT

I felt a blanket of peaceful love with a sense of urgency. The night air in front of me began to move; it looked like a wave gently swaying with a current. A thin light began to emerge then Landen stepped through the wave. I felt the air leave my lungs and adrenaline rush through every part of my body as my heart violently hammered in my chest.

“Landen…” I breathed.

In the darkness, I could see his haunting blue eyes widen, we were both soaked in the emotion of disbelief, along with the fear that this wasn’t real.

In that beat of my heart he’d reached my side. His hands were trembling ever so slightly as they cradled my face, and his thumbs graze the flesh of my cheekbones. He was staring at me like I was a forbidden fruit, like I was every sin in the book, desire washed over that lasting look as he leaned in and let his lips frame mine. When we melded the flesh of our lips together, his hands fell from my face and slowly waved down my body, embracing my flesh, I was doing the same to him. He was warm, he was on fire, I could hear his breaths, hear the sweet sound of our kiss, the way our clothes were moving under our touch. He was real. He was in my arms, and he was driving me wild. That first kiss was nothing compared to this, that was a dream, it was fleeting, it was something that could end at any second, this—this touch, this emotion, this pulsing of my soul was eternal.

He pressed our bodies together and held me with more strength than he had ever displayed. We both sought air more than once, but the other moved closer as soon as that gasp was taken. His warm tongue was uninhabited yet sensual as it danced with mine. I was devouring every sensation he was giving me and wanting more, so much more.

I was trembling with passion, I think he misunderstood that, he slowed our kiss, as one arm went around me and the other cradled my face. His thumb reached to my lips just as his kiss ended, he tenderly caressed the moist, swollen flesh he found there.

“I found you,” he said with the lips of an angel. His voice was deep and entrancing, those three simple words sounded like poetry as he spoke them.

His eyes danced over my image, “I love you.” he said as he leaned in and kissed me once more, this was a sweet kiss, only lips, only warm sensual lips.

Jamie Magee

I'm an obsessive daydreamer. Lover of loud alternative music. Addicted to Red Bull. I love to laugh until it hurts. Fall is my favorite season. Black is my favorite 'shade.' Strong believer in the saying: there is a reason for everything, therefore I search for 'marked moments' every moment of everyday...and I find them. Life is beautiful!

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Young Adult Romantic Fantasy

Date Published: 11/19/2013

Ava Fox has spent the past year acclimating to her new life as a wizard of Shadow Hill. Over the past year, her connection with Dalton has only grown stronger. They share a bond she has never known before and can't explain.

The danger is still there, even after the Sabatino coven was defeated, and Ava's future is anything but sure. Her powerful relationship with Dalton continues to make others wonder about the Prophecy, and their place in it. Time and again Ava's loyalty and strength will be put to the test as she fights for those she loves.

There are many more secrets of Shadow Hill that will be revealed in The Prophecy

BUY LINKS

The hardest part of writing my books is finding the time! I have three young children and am also a full time teacher, so it’s all about scheduling and planning. I make time every night to write for at least an hour and dedicate most of my writing time to weekends and vacations. I really try my best to not let my writing take too much time away from my children, and make sure that when we are together, we are active and doing things, then lock myself away for a few hours while they play with each other or friends.

What songs are most played on your Ipod?

Right now I am listening to a lot of Imagine Dragons, The Civil Wars, Lorde, and Mumford and Sons. I have been finishing up the last book in the Secrets of Shadow Hill series, War of Wizards, and have also started working on the second book on a contemporary romance series I will have coming out this spring. Music is a major inspiration for me while I write.

Do you have critique partners or beta readers?

I have two critique partners that I work with that give me a second look and different perspective for my stories. I feel like it is so important to have a different point of view. I want to make sure that all the pieces are coming together clearly for my readers.

What book are you reading now?

I just started reading “Orphan Train”by Christina Baker

How did you start your writing career?

I began my writing career when I decided to challenge myself and write a novel while on bed rest while pregnant with my twin daughters. I have always loved to write, but had never taken the time to actually write an entire novel. I just never thought I could actually do it. But when forced to do nothing my sit on my butt all day, I decided to make good use of my time, and let those pregnancy hormones take over and wrote the first draft of Always and Forever. After in sat in my computer for a year, my sister encouraged me to submit it to some publishers. I had a few offers and decided to sign a contract for my Secrets of Shadow Hill series with Center One Books. It has been an amazing experience and am so grateful for the opportunity to have my stories published.

I am extremely excited that the first book in my contemporary suspenseful romance series, Dust to Dust (A Broken Fairy Tale) will be released on March 4th! It is a much more mature and darker book than my Secrets of Shadow Hill series, with a much higher steam level. I absolutely loved writing this book and look forward to writing the other 4 stories I have planned for the A Broken Fairy Tale series. Here is the description for Dust to Dust:

Dust to Dust

If faced with your worst fear, what would you do? Would you run or would you fight?

Camryn Hamilton is a fighter.

A thirty-something mother of two, Camryn appears to have it all: a husband, plenty of money, and children she adores. When she returns home to spend Christmas with her family, her perfect world she has created begins to crumble, thrusting her face to face with the only man who truly knows her.

Holden Patrick will fight harder.

A powerful, handsome attorney, Holden left town after his adoptive parents’ death. In his time away he almost managed to forget the girl who ran away with his heart. At least until a turn of fate brought him back to Mantoloking, and back to Camryn.

But are they willing to fight for each other?

Faced with a tragic past that they both wanted to forget, they struggle to protect their hearts from being broken again. Will their love be enough to get them through another tragedy, or will they close themselves off and run away again?

I am also looking forward to having the last book of the Secrets of Shadow Hill series, War of Wizards, out to my readers this summer! I am hopeful everyone will be surprised and satisfied with the way the series ends.

S.P Cervantes lives in Orange County, California with her husband and three children,

where she is a teacher. She enjoys spending time with her family, writing, reading, and

running, but is always thinking of an idea for her next novel.

S.P. Cervantes is currently working on a new contemporary romance, while finishing the

final novel of the Secrets of Shadow Hill series.

S.P. Cervantes has a B.S. in Psychology and a Master’s Degree in Cross Cultural Education.

Chloe Knaggs is a bit of a nerd, a bit of a klutz, and all Blunder Woman, especially when it comes to love. Take the love of her life, Matt M. - or as she calls him - Mmm. He's her consummate unboyfriend, meaning, they have all the intimacy of a dating couple without any of the intimacy. Confused? So is Chloe. When Matt decides to elope with the very beautiful, svelte Amber, Chloe goes a little bit crazy and takes her hippy mom and best friend Megan right along with her.

Blunder Woman is a hilarious romp with bright characters through a series of misadventures including a derby party gone horribly wrong, a night of drinking Flaming Turtles, and a fundraising event where the biggest blunder of all occurs. Blunder Woman is funny, fresh, and above all real...in a truly awkward way.

WARNING: "Blunder Woman" will make you snort out loud so drinking while reading is not recommended.

EXCERPT

Two

A Brief (but not brief enough) History About Matt

I met Matt at a group training camp, you know those places to which companies take their awkward employees--employees who don’t get along and work better on their own. So the Company makes everyone go to a weekend long ‘retreat’ which is really a weekend long house-arrest without the little ankle bracelets.

I’ve done these things before.

You have the group leader and you’re locked in a room with your ‘teammates’ (or office workers who usually you have nothing to say to), and then the group leader leads you in an exercise of trust…usually something like falling backwards from a high perch and hoping to God your coworkers catch you. It’s supposed to teach you about trust and the importance of working as a team, but I don’t think it translates at all. During one of these exercises, I actually spend most of the time obsessing about how much I don’t trust my coworkers and how very little I want to fall into their arms. But I digress.

I didn’t want to go to the stupid Employee Esteem Training but I had to. I’d just been hired part-time at the musical society to write grants and organize fundraisers and I had to show that I was part of the team, a real go-getter, a team player. (More on this musical society later. Work is important, but right now I’m talking about the love of my life.) So the team-building thing was mandatory. No go, no job, end of story. So I was very pleased to walk into the Wedgwood Center (a.k.a. The Happy Place) and see a very handsome and very male individual standing in the center of the room, arms open and smiling. Sex appeal came off of him in waves, the way the scent of Axe deodorant pours off high school boys.

I can tell you what he looks like, but it doesn’t do him justice. Descriptions never do, you just end up envisioning a freakish monster with whatever hair and eye color I’ve described and try to think it’s sexy. So instead of saying he was tall and had dirty blonde hair and a wide smile (words that don’t really describe him at all), I’ll say instead that he was a mixture of Jason Bateman of Arrested Development quirkiness, with a Harrison Ford grin, and a body (I imagine) just like an oiled-up man posing in Glamour’s Hot Guy of the Month. This was Matt: sensitive, sexy, warm, sexy, open, funny, sexy, tall, ripped, sexy, and a smile that made me feel like he was looking just at me, even if he was looking at everyone the same way. And he was sexy. Did I say that? Like the kind of guy that should reproduce because, duh, that’s what we’re designed for, right?

I should have known I was in trouble right there. A man you’re attracted to somehow makes your brain stop working. It’s some kind of alien power, I’m sure of it. Attraction equals instant stupidity.

And when he opened his arms and welcomed us, I was ready to do any stupid trust exercise he asked, including the high wire walk between trees, which I did, all the while screaming, “I hate this! I can’t do this! Get me out of this tree!!!” Then I looked down at Matt and felt, somehow, I could do anything. Blammo. He suddenly became my rock, my force, and the new obsession of my life.

Two days later, I called him at his work. I called at 6:30 on a Sunday, certain he wouldn’t be there, and he wasn’t, thank the Gods, so I left a truly awkward message.

“Hi! Matt! This is Chloe!” My voice was so tight and peppy it sounded like I was on helium. “Oh. Chloe from that group you just had, you know, Mozart fundraiser go-go-go! I was the one with the curly shortish reddish hair, the one who talked a lot, the one who screamed ‘FOR GODDSAKES GET ME OUT OF THIS TREE!!!’ Yeah. So I was wondering if you’d like to go out for coffee with me? Scratch that. I don’t drink coffee, but maybe you do. You could get coffee and I could get something else. Tea maybe. Probably hot chocolate. Or maybe just water. And a scone. I like scones. Do you like scones? Yeah. So. I’d like to meet you. For an un-coffee. Okey-dokey? Okay.”

Not only had I actually said “Okey-dokey”, I also hung up without leaving my number. I had to call back and leave another message that I knew he’d get before the previous message so I basically had to repeat the entire thing. It was terrible.

He called me Monday morning.

We had uncoffee on Tuesday. Followed by unlunch (I was too nervous to eat) and an unwalk (we sat on a park bench and talked). I thought, I’ve found him. He’s the One, and leaned in to kiss him. He answered a call on his phone. It was his mom. At the end of our ‘date’ he hugged me to him, told me he loved spending time with me, that I was unlike anyone he’d ever met.

I’d been in love with him ever since.

I’ve loved him for two years. Two years of incredible conversations and ‘undates’. Of having dinner together, and movies, and celebrating each other’s birthday parties. Two years of meeting him for uncoffees and having unsex (meaning elaborate sex fantasies only in my mind), of being at his beck and call. Two years of celebrating holidays not on the holiday, but near it. Of talking about our daily lives on the phone or while curled up watching a movie. And when I stop to think about it, two years of never meeting his friends, never meeting his family, and never, not ever, meeting his penis.

I’ve loved him for two years. Two! I probably love him still. And I hate his guts for that. Really. I do.

Tanya Eby

Tanya Eby is an audiobook narrator and novelist living in Grand Rapids, Michigan with her tiki-obsessed husband and two quirky kids.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

When fate forced Hannah Sorrento to take on the management of indie rockers, Storm, she managed to survive but, when she found out she'd been played by their mercurial front man, Jack Colt, the betrayal hit her hard.

She flees to Tokyo, where her father orchestrates a deal to save their collapsed financial empire. A deal that involves a gorgeous millionaire.

Tamaki is everything Jack isn't and, with their similar backgrounds, he and Hannah form a bond. He offers her safety and security as well as a return to her luxurious lifestyle. But the passion Jack arouses in Hannah won't be denied.

In the second Bad Boy Rock Star book, Rock Star vs Millionaire, can Hannah forgive Jack or will she take the sanctuary Tamaki offers?

EXCERPT

Jack was in the kitchen, making breakfast. How could a man look so good first thing in the morning? With his tussled hair and baggy pj bottoms… and I didn't even want to think about his arms in that tank top. That curve from his shoulders down his arm. A classically trained ballerina could not move as gracefully as that curve in his muscle as he . If I thought too hard about it, the only decision left in this world would be whether I wanted to trace that indent with my finger tip or my tongue.

"Want a coffee?"

I jumped, hoping he couldn't read my thoughts.

I sat at the kitchen bench with my gaze fixed firmly on my hands.

"So, what's the plan for today?" he asked.

I hadn't really thought about it.

"I guess I should start looking for a place to live."

"You can stay here as long as you like, you know. It's okay." He grinned at me. I'd add that to my collection of the other four or five genuine Jack Colt smiles I'd got in this life.

"With you sleeping on the couch, I don't think so."

The words hung in the air. Emotions flitting over both our faces, words we didn't want to put out there. Jack didn't have to sleep on the couch. I had taken over his bed and that bed had a huge Jack Colt-shaped emptiness that had haunted my dreams.

He squeezed by me to get cups out of the cupboard. In the small kitchen space, I couldn't help but be aware of his physical closeness, the feeling of his body almost brushing against mine and the smell of his skin that even the fresh coffee couldn't hide. I wanted to press against him and feel his heat. I wanted him to be mine to touch and caress but he wasn't. Too many questions hung over us. He'd told me that he wanted me, he wanted to be with me but I still had no idea if I could trust him.

I moved to sit on the sofa, putting some space between us.

Maybe I should just ask, I thought. Bring it all out into the open. Tell him how I felt, my fears and worries. Let him know what was holding me back. But the words didn't exist in me. This wasn't some talk show. We were real people and real people didn't let it all out. They held it deep inside, hugging it to themselves. When you told people how you felt, that gave them the power.

If I was a normal girl, I'd have these straight forward emotions that I could talk about. I'd be able to lay it out on the table, take it or leave it. But, instead my emotions squirmed inside me, burrowing deeper and deeper.

Candy Starr

Candy J. Starr used to be a band manager until she realised that the band she managed was so lacking in charisma that they actually sucked the charisma out of any room they played. “Screw you,” she said, leaving them to wallow in obscurity – totally forgetting that they owed her big bucks for video equipment hire.

Candy has filmed and interviewed some big names in the rock business, and a lot of small ones. She’s seen the dirty little secrets that go on in the back rooms of band venues. She’s seen the ugly side of rock and the very pretty one.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Women's Fiction / Romance

Date Published: 12/30/2013

A beautiful Australian para-equestrian, Eleanor, is rudely awakened the morning after her twentieth birthday to face two pressing problems: the first, though she refuses to accept it, is that she's been told by many acquaintances and relations that she'll never find true love, and the second being, though she doesn't know it yet, that she can't even get up the steps to visit the blasted night-club with her mates! What no one knows is that one random act of chivalry, at the hands of a handsome American naval flight officer, is about to turn her world upside down. The heartfelt and sometimes harrowing journey that follows is as humorous as it is inspirational.

A Canter of the Heart is the romance of a new millennium, a story that you've never heard before, and one that should take its place amongst the iconic romances of our time. But most importantly, it is a romance that will speak, most unapologetically, to your heart. A Canter of the Heart is the first book in ‘The Equestrian and the Aviator’ trilogy that sets our intrepid heroine on the journey of a lifetime. The first thing that you will no doubt discover is that Eleanor, fickle girl that she is, has already found the love of her life – her inspiring love of horses.

This trilogy is based on a true story, and is a testament to the therapeutic riding programs offered by the Riding for the Disabled Association of Australia. It is dedicated to the many remarkable, selfless people who made and continue to make those programs possible.

Marketing! I love the scenes from movies like 'Romancing the Stone' and 'As
good as it gets,' where the author remorse’s over the last few lines, types
them onto the page and then shouts 'done!' then proceeds to celebrate. The
irony is palpable! What actually comes next is the hardest part of writing –
editing - and on the heals of months of editing comes the hardest part of all –
marketing and promotion. I would love to go back to those blissful dreams of
completing a book, handing it off to a publisher and going on to the next book,
but being an 'Indie' author has its drawbacks.

What songs are most played on your Ipod?

For reasons which have little to do with the
lyrics, I enjoy 'Down Under' by Men at Work which helps me overcome short bouts
of writer's block, but I also enjoy a lot of eighties and nineties music like
the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Van Halen, Depeche Mode, U2 and so on. It
was very sad to hear about Greg Ham; his flute riff really made 'Down Under'
what it was.

Do you have critique partners or beta readers?

I have a good friend, a brilliant multidisciplinary
visual artist in Australia who always reads through my work, and a great published
author and copy-editor in France at edit-my-books.com, who has improved my
writing immeasurably. I've also worked with some great fellow Indie authors, as
well as readers on Goodreads, who help me out with reviews and recommendations.

What book are you reading now?

I'm currently reading 'A
Light in the Cane Fields' by Enrico Antiporada and I just bought 'Heads Above
Water' by Stephanie Dagg and 'The Girl who Sang with Whales' by Marc Secchia.
Lately I'm reading anything I can get my hands on, which is why I'm so fond of
Goodreads. I've never felt so in-touch with the writing community until I
really got involved with the programs and groups on Goodreads.

Mainstream fiction is
okay, you might say it's the 'McDonalds' of fiction, where you know what you're
going to get, but indie books are the 'wild west' of fiction right now, which
may be a little bit hit and miss, but I find the writing to be much more fun to
read, because anything can happen, and often times those are the most
satisfying books to read.

How did you start your writing career?

I finally got tired of making excuses and started
writing. It wasn't easy, but as I got further into it, the story took on a life
of its own. When the characters started choosing their own paths and making
their own decisions, that's when writing really became fun.

I'm working on two books right now, the first is
the second book in 'The Equestrian and the Aviator' series and the other book
is a science fiction action/romance set during a time when illegal underground
DNA experimentation is being manipulated by large pharmaceutical companies and
clandestine government factions.

E.E. West

I've been a resident of the Pacific Northwest for the better part of two decades, and blithely accept life in the shadows of the nesting grounds of bald eagles while ensconced amidst the company of wild, damp and understandably nervous bunnies. I prefer to write at the dining room table, where the light is better and I can work next to Simon, the sweetest one hundred and twenty pound Rottweiler that you're ever likely to meet -- except when he's in the mood to editorialize, which he is only on rare occasions. I much prefer to write love stories that take place in warm, sunny and exotic locales as I admire and rate the latest downpour direct from the Pacific Northwest's over-active convergence zone, but in my heart I will forever be drawn back to the lucky country... Australia... and maybe one more lovely canter along an endless beach.